Greek-style yogurt with cinnamon. Photo by Flickr user thepinkpeppercorn.
On Saturday, the Daily Star ran a story about the odd phenomenon of yogurt companies taking our region by storm.
Chenango County, the paper reported, is home to not one, but two popular European-style yogurt companies: Chobani, which makes Greek yogurt, and Sunrise Family Farms, which makes Icelandic skyr:
And in Norwich, at Sunrise Family Farms, Icelandic native Siggi Hilmarsson produces Siggi's Icelandic-style skyr yogurt.
Skyr is strained yogurt, where the whey is removed, leaving a creamy yet non-fat milk product.
"It's been a tradition in Iceland for a thousand years," said Elmond Clark, who oversees production of Siggi's at Sunrise Family Farms' creamery in Norwich, a facility opened by Dave and Sue Evans in 2004.
Sunrise, the Star reports, is expanding its operations to Greene County, making the Catskills an official outpost of the yogurt belt.
Both Chenango-based yogurts are thick, creamy concoctions. But a more American style of yogurt is also being made in the Catskills, at Cowbella in Jefferson.
But what is it about the Catskills that attracts yogurt? Maybe it's the culture. (Ba-da-bing!)
